Red Sox great Doerr dies at 99
GRANTS PASS, ORE. » Bobby Doerr, the Hall of Fame second baseman dubbed the “Silent Captain” of the Boston Red Sox by longtime teammate and friend Ted Williams, has died. He was 99.
Doerr died on Monday in Junction City, Oregon, the Red Sox said Tuesday in a statement. The Red Sox said Doerr had been the oldest living major league player.
“Bobby Doerr was part of an era of baseball giants and still stood out as one himself,” Red Sox owner John Henry said. “And even with his Hall of Fame achievements at second base, his character and personality outshined it all.”
Signed out of the old Pacific Coast League on the same scouting trip that brought Williams to Fenway Park, Doerr played 14 seasons with the Red Sox and joined his fishing buddy in the Hall of Fame in 1986. He had a .288 lifetime average and helped the Red Sox to the 1946 World Series.
The nine-time All-Star often forgave his more accomplished friend for his storied anger and impatience.
“Ted couldn’t understand mediocre, see,” Doerr told The Associated Press on his 90th birthday in 2008, which the governor of Oregon declared Bobby Doerr Day. “And I was in that mediocre class.”
Doerr’s modesty was belied by his stats: He finished with 2,042 hits, 223 home runs and 1,247 RBIs and he once went 414 games without an error — a record at the time. His six seasons with at least 100 RBIs was not matched by another second baseman for 25 years.
Doerr was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1986 by the Veterans Committee and the Red Sox retired his No. 1 jersey in 1988.
Forced to retire by a bad back in 1951, Doerr lived out his retirement in Oregon, his adopted home after spending a winter fishing for steelhead on the Rogue River and meeting his future wife. When Doerr retired, he picked up a bamboo fly rod Williams designed and named for him — but Doerr still had to pay for it.
The lifelong friendship between Doerr, Williams, Johnny Pesky and Dom DiMaggio was described by David Halberstam in the 2003 book “The Teammates: A Portrait of a Friendship.” A statue commemorating that friendship was unveiled at Fenway in 2010.
‘Go-Go’ Chisox outfielder ‘Jungle Jim’ Rivera dies
CHICAGO » “Jungle Jim” Rivera, an outfielder on the 1959 “Go-Go” White Sox pennant-winning team, has died. He was 96. The team says he died Monday night in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
The AL leader in triples in 1953 and steals two years later, “Jungle Jim” played for the White Sox from 1952 to 1961.
He was part of the 1959 team that captured the franchise’s first pennant since 1919.